Weekly Summary – 85 Miles in 13 runs (plus some cross training). Big step in the right direction this week w/ the body’s general energy level feeling much better and a lot of the early-season achiness receding. A travel day in there as I headed down to Texas and crewed/paced Patrick Reagan during his 100 mile National Championship — an amazing experience for sure!

Don’t forget, you can follow me day to day on Instagram and Twitter (@TylerCAndrews) and my daily training log on Trackster.

Oh and hey if you’re reading this and don’t know about STRIVE, you should probably check ’em out. I lead groups through the mountains of Peru on a  journey of running, service learning, and adventure. If you’re interested, join us this summer, when we’ll once again have programs for High School and Internships for College students, and even 10-day trips for adults and families.

Lastly, I’m very grateful to support from Outback Physcial Therapy here in Somerville, MA. Dr. Ithamar Jokowitz has been a great help in analyzing my gate and physiology and helping me put together a specific strength-training regimen to really dial things in. If you’re interested in improving your running mechanics, enhancing your recovery, learning about what injuries you might be at risk for, or even get your VO2 max tested, he’s definitely the guy to see in the area!

 

 

Lunes, 2 de Diciembre, 2019 – 09:00: Ran inside on treadmill easy since it was filthy outside. Purposefully kept it very easy for the most part, HR in the 140s, around 8’00/M down to 7’40/M or so at 2% inc. Finished w/ last 1M or so quicker around 6’45 down to 6’15/M, still felt good. Cadence is still much lower on treadmill even w/ a lot of focus on it ~ 174. Total run 6.5km in 31’.

XT: Heel drops, upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, pedestal (7x weights), jwal core (no weights).

17:30: Ran later after Alta Andina monthly call. On treadmill at 2% and ran 20+ min, 4’51, 4’49, 4’33, screwed up the last few splits but down to about 4’00/km. Felt good. Total run 4.5km+ in 20’30.

After, did 20’ on elliptical w/ 10’ easy and then 10’ of 30” on, 1’ off. Total of 40’ of work. 

Finished w/ full drills indoors.

XT: Heel drops, upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes

 

Martes, 3 de Diciembre, 2019 – 09:45: Jogged over to Outback PT in very nasty snowy and icy conditions. Still coming down hard and sidewalks not well cleared. Got there way early and so did full leg circuit and spent 20’ or so in normatec before treatment. Jogged back after w/ stop at Target. Total run 7.6km in 36’30.

XT: Good deep session on the lower legs w/ Ithamar at Outback PT.

XT: Heel drops.

Legs circuit (static lunge on balance ball, split lunge, step up, squat, 3 sets of 10x each, 10-20lb weight on last 2 set)

Beach ball, monster walk 1 leg bands, upper bands, toes

16:00: Ran easy on treadmill at 91 syd from 4’50->4’05/km for 4km warmup. Stopped and changed into carbon rockets and did drills and then 3x strides. After, did 4x500m @ 3’05/km w/ last 100m, 200m, and 300m @ 2’45/km, 500m rec @ ~ 1’55-2’00. Felt very good. Ran 1’33, 1’58, 1’29, 1’57, 1’27, 1’58, 1’23. Last rep ran quicker, 3’00 pace through about 200m and then quicker to finish. First time running that fast has felt decent in a while. Promising! Ran right into cooldown 1.5km @ 4’00/km, so total was 11’45 for 3.5km of work (3’21 pace) and 5km in 17’45 w/ cooldown.

Total run 9.6km in 38’.

XT: Heel drops only. Skipped everything else as I was late and it was our anniversary dinner.

 

Miercoles, 4 de Diciembre, 2019 – 09:35: Slept late after a fun anniversary night yesterday and relaxing morning w/ Mar. Ran inside on treadmill as it was 28F and figured it’d still be very icy after the big storm. Felt a bit tired at first but much better as run went on. Started around 8’00/M at 2% and worked down to about 6’40/M and then last km quicker in 3’49. Quick bathroom break around 35’. Otherwise all good. Total run 11km+ in 49’.

After, did 20’ on elliptical. Trying to keep overall volume about what I want running-wise. Did 10’ easy at res 5-6 and then 6x 30” hard, 1’ mod at res 6-7. 3’ easy to finish. Total 21’.

Total 70’ of work. Finished w/ full drills indoors, but had really nasty chafing so a bit gentle.

XT: Heel drops, upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes, hips (7x weights)

16:00: Ran outside for the first time in a while (other than the blizzard jaunt to Outback PT yesterday). Ran science museum and realized after 1km that my watch wasn’t starting and was being super buggy. Ugh. Went very old school by the time of day and then mapped out run after. Did 7.1km (from home around the loop and back to the Cambridge end of Smoot) in about 30’ and then did drills, 4x strides on the bike path. Mostly clear, but all pavement. Finished w/ a run up Mass Ave and back to stop by CVS. Total run ~9.75km in ~40’30.

XT:: Heel drops (only did a couple on left side as it was a bit tender), upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes.

 

Jueves, 5 de Diciembre, 2019 – Sparknotes:  8km fartlek on treadmill in 25’57 w/ 3’, 2’, 1’ @ 3’10, 3’05, 2’57ish, 1’ off @ 3’45.

09:30: Ran outside to warmup. Still snow on the ground, so just on concrete. Legs and ankles felt pretty good. Finished at the gym after 5km and did drills and 4x strides and 200m relaxed in 36.

Plan was to do fartlek on treadmill of sets of 3’, 2’, 1’ on, 1’ off. Ran in Carbon Rockets. Ended up running about 3’10, 3’05, 2’57 pace for each rep and the rec min around 3’45/km. Thought I might be able to bring the pace down but this ended up being just hard enough for 3 sets. Had enough to accellerate the last 1’ rep (or just a few seconds short as I ran to 8km) at 2’45/km but the longer reps were consistently the same pace. Warm in the gym too!

Workout was 8km in 25’57. Cooled down short for a total run of 15.5km in 60’30.

XT: Heel drops.

Legs circuit (static lunge on balance ball (5lb), split squat (10-20lb) step up (10-20lb), squat (10-20lb), 3 sets of 10x each

Beach ball, monster walk 1 leg bands, upper bands, toes

15:00: Jogged over to Outback PT for session w/ Ithamar. Good deep work in the calves after tihs morning. Legs felt pretty bad. Run back was cold and dark. Total run 8km- in 38’. 

Heel drops, upper bands, beach ball, monster walk, 1 leg bands, toes.

 

Viernes, 6 de Diciembre, 2019 – 04:00: Up very early and worked out inside. Did first 25’ on elliptical and then 15’ running (about 3.5km) on treadmill, just to be careful as achilles were a bit sore from the workout yesterday. Everything felt decent. Total work 40’, total run 3.5km.

XT: Upper bands, toes.

17:00: Made it to Houston and met up w/ Patrick and drove out to our sweet AirBNB house that we’re sharing with Barry and Jen, two of Pat’s coaching clients. Went out for a short shakeout w/ Patrick on a lovely dirt road at the end of our driveway. Did an easy 15 min and then back and did drills and 4x strides. Felt good. Total run 4km- in 16’30.

XT: Off.

 

Sabado, 7 de Diciembre, 2019 – 05:30: Ran easy 7’ w/ Patrick before his race started (can you believe he warms up for a hundred miler??) and then once they were off ran solo on the race course to cheer on the runners. Absolutely beautiful morning as it was dark when I left but the sun was just beginning to come up by the middle and perfect dawn by the end. Course is extremely flat with great footing. Very fast course. Stopped and did drills and then 6x strides. Mechanics and ankles felt great today. Total run 11km in 46’30.

XT: Upper bands, toes.

16:00: Hopped in with Patrick and planned to run the last 44km or so of his race. Ended up only running about 21km as we’d learned the day before that I wasn’t actually allowed to “pace” him but would only be able to be his “safety runner”, meaning I had to run 20 ft behind him and couldn’t talk to him. This ended up being more stressful for him than I think was valuable (for either of us) and my left achilles (really both achilles) felt pretty bad, so I cut way earlier than planned. He, of course, is an absolute machine and crushed it, running the fastest trail 100 in the world this year (and maybe the fastest of all time). Unreal. Great day. Total run 21km+ in 1h40.

XT: OFF.

 

Domingo, 8 de Diciembre, 2019 – 11am: Ran later after a great night last night celebrating Patrick’s victory and then spent the morning packing up the cabin and driving back to Brazo’s Bend to watch the final finishers. Ran a lovely loop around the park, starting out on the course and tacking on a few extra loops here and there. Saw some MONSTER GATORS. Left achilles was a bit testy at times but overall felt decent and better as the run went on. Stopped at 16km in 70’ and then drills and did 6x strides, all of which felt great. Beautiful morning, in the 70s and sunny. Ran shirtless. Great day. Total run 17km+ in 73’30.

XT: OFF, busy day w/ travel.

17:30: Ran at Austin Airport while Patrick drank beer and watched our stuff. Pretty hard to be a pedestrian in Texas, especially near an airport, but found a big parking lot and mostly did laps around there. Finished w/ no drills/stopping but did 4x 20” surges around 2’50-3’00/km w/ about 30” moderate between each. Legs and ankles felt pretty good, especially given it was mostly concrete. Total run 7km+ in 30’.

XT: OFF, just grabbed dinner for the flight and got on the plane.